Homeschooling with eyeliner.

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Preppy Productivity.

Okay. We’re going to get on this working thing. Because…well, I just realized that it’s June 15. Which means I have to have a thesis prospectus and be capable of semi-defending it in less than two and a half months and holy cow does that sounds a lot more pressing than “oh, I should do some research this summer…”

(I’ve been…busy.)

When I’m recovering from being…busy, I spend a lot of time on the internet. Reading academic blogs. And they’re all perky and happy and busy and ooh, I’m researching in such-and-such archives this week and have written six chapters of my dissertation and what do you mean you’re watching Arrested Development again, you’ve seen that series like eight times pssh you’re never going to graduate.

Okay. I may be reading a trifle too much into the posts.

But whatever. I felt guilty.

So! I’ve been very productive already this morning. I:

1.) Ordered some books from University Library about my broad topic.

2.) Did a general article search on WorldCat about my broad topic.

3.) Got frightened when it returned approximately eleventy jillion articles, ten jillion of which are written in languages I don’t speak.

4.) E-mailed copies of the four articles that are a. in English, b. readily available online, and c. have titles that vaguely make sense to me to myself and decided that was enough of WorldCat for the day.

5.) Went to amazon and bought this Polish book that my New Jesuit Bestie* suggested because obviously no one writes about the Catholic Church in Poland in English or Latin FOOLS.

6.) Geeked out more over my Amazon Rewards than the possibility of learning a language for my doctorate and expanding my educational horizons.

7.) Perused the latest edition of the Catholic Historical Review. (Very scholarly.) That I received three weeks ago and has been sitting on my nightstand since then underneath InStyle while I’ve been…busy. (Less scholarly.)

8.) Discovered there were no articles about anything remotely helpful. Considered looking up back editions that probably did contain helpful articles. Figured that was an awful lot of work.

9.) Read an article about the Church in Spain even though I don’t care about Spain but I am going there and even though it’s not for academic reasons, reading an academic article about it may make me feel slightly more scholarly. (ETA: It didn’t.)

10.) Scoured my bookshelves, desk, chairs, closet (???), and various and sundry bags and suitcases (Ohio? Probably? I don’t even know.) and made a pile of all the books I had planned on already having finished.

Whew. And it’s only 10:17.

You’ll notice I didn’t really actually…do anything. Like, all of the reading and research and writing and stuff still…needs to be accomplished. But! The prep stuff is finished! And everybody knows that’s the easiest hardest part. So. Ha!

(Tomorrow’s list will most likely include “Send tearful e-mail to advisor begging for guidance.” It probably won’t include “wash hair.” Which I’ve been avoided for a little while.)